The present invention relates to a 360° rotatable drill shear attachment for a portable hand drill and more particularly to a drill shear attachment securable to the drill body to permit shear attachment axial rotation in relation to the hand drill and to permit safe, one-handed operation of the drill with the axially rotatable shear attachment.
Building materials include metal panels, steel mesh, galvanized sheet metal, furnace jackets, spiral ducts, stone coated metal shingles and various types of corrugation metal panels. Panels that are also to be cut include automotive body panels for repair and replacement. U.S. Pat. No. 2,047,483 shows an example of an electric shear which has replaced hand operated shears. U.S. Pat. No. 2,256,779 shows a shear attachment for a power drill unit. This attachment is quite cumbersome and not capable of navigating tight curves, patterns, or squares in heavy-duty gauge steel. U.S. Pat. No. 2,604,695 shows a hand-operated shear which has been used for decades to cut metal sheets and panels. U.S. Pat. No. 2,635,335 shows a power driven hand-held sheet metal shear attachable to a drill with a one-way stabilizer that gives limited positioning of the attached metal shear. U.S. Pat. No. 3,654,700 shows a shear cutting head with a pair of movable jaws that supposedly does not cause severed distortion of the material to be cut. U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,416 shows a metal cutting shear attachment securable to the collar of a portable drill.
Assignee's U.S. design Pat. D488,695 shows a simple drill shear attachment to a portable drill with a generally vertically oriented handle thereby requiring two-handed operation of the drill with the shear attachment. Assignee also has U.S. Pat. Nos. D513,953 and 7,093,365 for shear attachments with no shear attachment rotation ability.
There is a need for a 360° rotatable shear attachment safely secured to the chuck of portable drill as well as to the elongate drill body for single-handed operations of the shear attachment in any rotatable position in relation to the hand drill which will not allow hair or loose clothing to come into contact with the rotating drill chuck or attachment drive bit possibly causing harm to the operator.